There may be love without happiness, but there is never happiness without love. --- La Femme et la Vie, Paris

只有没有幸福的爱，但没有没有爱的幸福。 --- La Femme et la Vie, Paris

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Written 5/22/2006, Reprint 9/27/2011)

What is happiness? We use this term too often sometimes to know the meaning of it.

To me, happiness is a profound state of being at peace with oneself. To reach to this state of being, one has to have great self-knowledge and the courage to strive for self-realization. This is to say that one has to have known what one wants, one's own ability and one's own character.

The process to reach to happiness is simple and straight forward, but to go through this process, one needs will, ability and courage. The courage to face oneself is paramount and tto be honest to oneself is a prerequisit.

Happiness cannot be given or possessed. Happiness is an achievement and a process of constantly striving to achieve it. If someone promises to give you happiness, don't believe that. A miserable person can never give happiness to anyone. A happy person can only project his own inner happiness to his surroundings, that can have a happiness effect on others, but can never guaranty happiness to others.

Happiness can only be felt by oneself, and only a soulful person can admit he or she either feels happy or unhappy. A soulless person can live in a state of denial forever, without ever knowing how and what he or she feels. This is what I call a state of being a zombie. A soulless person typically is afraid of being happy, for he is afraid of losing it and the pain associated with losing it. A soulless person is also in denial of his state of unhappiness, for he is afraid of others' opinions and criticism. While a happy person lives for himself, an unhappy person lives for others.

I always believe a person's primary responsibility is to make himself happy, for only then the world will have one more happy person, and because of that the entire world will have one more happiness. It is the miserable person who constantly wants to save the world without ever realizing he is only projecting misery. While he never takes responsibility for his own happiness, he thinks by saving and helping others he can acquire happiness. He then tries to play God to others, and the end result will be everyone is miserable, for he is not God. He is only a pretender. Many dictators and despots in the world are people who fell into this trap of self-deception. What they have brought upon the world and people is endless suffering, misery and deaths. Yet they told themselves that they want to bring happiness to the people and the world. They are the ultimate evil.

Beware: Those who want to do something For you, will always do something To you.

If you want to bring more happiness to the wrold, be happy yourself, be courageous yourself in facing the truth and your own evils and sins, then you will have the possibility to be happy and be profoundly at peace with yourself. And because of it, the world will have one more happy person and one more candle light to brighten the others.

Be happy, be free to achieve happiness, then you are the most powerful person on earth, for you have couquered your own devils and projected your own joy onto your surroundings.